John 1:4
"In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."

John 8:32
"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

John 14:6
"Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to
the Father except through Me."

MONTHLY LESSONS DESIGNED TO CONVERT.

June, 2016 - NEW KING JAMES VERSION

“God has Spoken!”

Hebrews 1:1-2“God,
who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers
by the prophets,
2has in these last days
spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things,
through whom also He made the worlds”

2 Timothy 3:16-17“All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
17that the man of God may
be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

God has always communicated to man. He has always rendered to man
‘all’ man needs to know
about Him and the righteousness He desires from His creation. God’s
revelation was never designed to educate men of the non-essentials of this
world, but to educate them in the knowledge of the Creator and His designs.

God never intended for those who believe in Him to do so blindly, so the
Holy Scriptures are full of evidence of Divine Authorship.

Continuity –

The Bible was
written over a 1600 year period; some 60 generations; and over 40 human
agents from every walk of life. Moses, a political and then a spiritual
leader; Peter, a fisherman; Amos, a herdsman; Joshua, a military leader;
Nehemiah, a cup bearer; Daniel, a prime minister; Luke, a Gentile physician;
Solomon, a king; Matthew, a tax collector; and Paul, a tent making Rabbi.

It was written on
several continents; in three different languages, it covers hundreds of the
world’s most controversial subjects; yet, there is a unity without
contradiction that binds the entire work together. Try that with just 10
writers of the same background, let alone the diversity mentioned here.

Brevity –

Genesis with only 50
chapters tells the origin of the world and all that is in it, in addition
the first 2500 years of man’s history on the earth. In only 34 verses, the
creation of the entire material universe is rendered.

The daily newspaper
takes more space than that to tell about a local basketball game. The
Readers Digest each month uses more words in each issue than all of Genesis.

When the first
Apostle of Jesus Christ was martyred for the cause of Christ, Luke recorded
everything in just eleven verses. If a local reporter was commissioned to
write about this same event, how much space would it take? Men, on their
own, do not write with such restraint.

Listen to the words
of the Apostle John:

John 20:30-31“And
truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are
not written in this book;
31but these are written
that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that
believing you may have life in His name.”

John 21:25“And
there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written
one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books
that would be written. Amen.”

Prophecies –

The Bible is the
only book ever that contains a large body of prophecies relating to
individual nations, cities, peoples, and a Messiah. In all of the Greek
literature, there is not a single specific prophecy of a great historic
event to come.

Consider; where are
the prophecies of Mohammed hundreds of years before his birth?

It was Isaiah,
approx. 750 years before the birth of the Christ of God, which said:

Isaiah 7:14“Therefore
the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and
bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”

Isaiah 9:6-7“For
unto us a Child is born,Unto us a Son is given;And the government will be upon His shoulder.And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,Everlasting
Father, Prince of Peace.
7Of the increase of
His government and peaceThere will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,To
order it and establish it with judgment and justiceFrom that time forward, even forever.The zeal of the Lord
of hosts will perform this.”

Reliability of the
Text –

Our English versions
of the Bible were translated from the most ancient copies, made from the
original manuscripts, which are still available in several museums
worldwide.

Internal Evidence -

It was God that gave
His Christ “All Authority”;
including the revealed word by which we are to be guided to God through
Christ Jesus (as the sole avenue of approach today –
Matthew 28:18-20;
Ephesians 1:22-23;
Hebrews 1:1-3).

The Christ of God,
in turn, gave the Spirit of God to His chosen in order to reveal His plan
for man’s salvation and the doctrine that would keep him in a relationship
with God (John
16:13-14; 1
Corinthians 2:10-16; 2
John 9).

It would then be the
Apostles of Jesus Christ that would bring the Gospel to the world of men,
and command that the scriptures be read and kept to maintain the
relationships created by obedience to the Good News.

1 Thessalonians 5:27“I
charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the holy brethren.”

2 Thessalonians 3:14“And
if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do
not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed.”

1 Timothy 1:3“As
I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may charge
some that they teach no other doctrine”

In addition to reading; these same obedient children of God through Jesus
Christ were commanded to circulate the written word throughout the Bodies of
Christ.

Colossians 4:16“Now
when this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church
of the Laodiceans, and that you likewise read the epistle from
Laodicea.”

There is ample internal evidence that all of these commands (read, copy, and
share) were exceptionally obeyed.

2 Peter 3:15-16“and
consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as
also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has
written to you,
16as also in all his
epistles,
speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to
understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own
destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.”

This look into the internal evidence of the reliability of the text,
demonstrates that the first century Christians would begin a tradition of
preservation that would continue, even enduring persecution, and would leave
a lasting mark on the ability for you and me to have many available
manuscripts to translate versions for our use.

Conclusion –

Matthew 24:35“Heaven
and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”

1 Peter 1:22-25“Since
you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in
sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
23having been born again,
not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which
lives and abides forever,
24because

“All fleshisas grass,And all the glory of manas the flower of the grass.The grass withers,And its flower falls away,
25But the word of the
Lord
endures forever.”

Now this is the word
which by the gospel was preached to you.”

God has spoken! In His
Divine revelation, He has revealed His nature (Nurturer, Father, Love, etc…)
and man’s nature (the creature, purposefully created, in need of his
Creator, etc…).

The Bible reveals that
God had purpose and order for man’s creation.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14“Let
us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:

Fear God and keep His
commandments,For this is man’s all.
14For God
will bring every work into judgment,Including every secret thing,Whether good or evil.”

He has expressed
through His revelation, that He wants all men to know His love.

1 John 5:3“For
this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments
are not burdensome.”

He has expressed that
He wants all men to seek Him.

Hebrews 11:6“But
without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes
to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those
who diligently seek Him.”

Romans 10:17 “So
then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

This Book is the
complete narrative of everything that God has worked on behalf of
establishing man in a relationship that will in hope transcend this life;
now that is Good News!

Romans 1:16-17“For
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to
salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the
Greek.
17For in it the
righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written,
“The just shall live by
faith.””